Chapter 3

Facts

Minecraft was mocking Gameknight999. 

Just half an hour earlier, he had hoped he would never have to go into the interrogation room. Now here he was, with two phantoms sitting in front of him. Hail was constantly shuffling her wings and whispering something to herself. She peered around curiously. Comet stood up perfectly straight. His glowing green eyes never left Gameknight. It made the him uncomfortable- it was eerily like Herobrines eyes. Wonder, Monet, Crafter, Herder, Hunter, and Stitcher were all crammed in the small room with them. Digger was up in the watchtower, making sure that no other monsters were on their way. 

    “So,” Gameknight said in an effort to break the awkward silence. “I’ve never really done one of these, so-“ 

  Out of nowhere, Hunter slammed her hands done on the table hard enough to knock Gameknight off balance. “WHO SENT YOU HERE?!?!” She shouted. They all froze. Then, very slowly, Gameknight pried the angry red heads hands from the table. “What my friend meant,” he said slowly. “Is if you could please tell us who told you to come here?”

   Hail instantly said, “Void.” Comet spun around. “Hail!” He yelled. She cowered under his gaze. “Sorry,” she said meekly. “I thought you were supposed to say yes when someone said please!” 

   “Not to villagers!” Comet snapped. “They’re the enemy!”

  But it was to late. Gameknight’s mind was already whirling. “Void?” He asked. Comet sighed. “Yes.” The User-that-is-not-a-user smiled at him. “Did this Void have magenta eyes or white eyes?” Comet thought for a second. “White,” he said after a moment. Gameknight turned, giving a worried look at the rest of the group. “So we’re up against Herobrine.”

    There was an awful hiss and gasp. Looking back at the phantoms, Gameknight saw that Comet once again had his back arched and Hails eyes had tripled in size. “What?” Gameknight asked. “Did you just say Herobrine?” Comet growled. “Yes…” Gameknight said. The phantom shivered. “But- but I thought-“ 

    “What’s so bad about about Herobrine?” Gameknight asked. “I thought the monsters all liked him.” Hail was frantically shaking her head. “Oh, no.” Comet said, shakily sitting back down. “It’s the complete opposite. Monsters are terrified of him.”

    Gameknight was confused. “But… what about the monsters will rule Minecraft and the creatures of the night shall rise stuff he always does?”

   “The only way Herobrine has been able to rule the monsters is by controlling their rulers. That’s why he creates them. Every monster on the face of the Overworld hates him.”

   Gameknight shuddered. “Not as scared as the villagers,” he said. “Phantoms have an actual code for if Herobrine finds us,” Comet said. “We call it “Code White”. Every phantom is supposed to shoot off on their own. Completely alone. Can’t even get in pairs. Then there are dispensers that shoot out lava so everything is burned before he can get there.”

   “Woah,” Gameknight said, shocked. “Then there are the rumors,” Comet continued. “They say the skeletons have something similar to our code. And that the zombies hollowed out a whole mountain just to hide in. That enderman learned how to hide in the Void just because of him. And they say that there are secret monster rulers that Herobrine banished a long time ago, that are still out there somewhere. But their still running, because Herobrine sent another being after them. A shadowy figure with black eyes.”

    This small piece of Minecraft history was a game changer for Gameknight. “Maybe we can get some monsters to switch sides!” Comet shook his head. “It won’t work,” he said. “Monsters hate villagers-“

   “That can change!” Gameknight snapped. “And they’re scared of them,” finished Comet. “What?” Asked Stitcher. “They’re scared of us?”

   Comet nodded. “It all comes back to Herobrine. He starts the wars, not us. Villagers are the ones that purposely kill our many kinds. You people literally go monster hunting! We don’t go villager hunting!”

   “But,” Gameknight said slowly. “We act out of self defense! We don’t start the wars either.” Comet nodded grimly. “Neither sides are guilty. But villagers always win, because villagers have an unfair advantage. Your able to hold any object you want. You can run silently and ride horses. You have safe walls and tunnels for backup to come through and armor and you shoot better and swing better and jump higher and you don’t have Herobrine controlling you.”

    They were all silent. “And users are even worse,” Comet continued. “Oh, come on.” Gameknight snapped. “How our we any worse than the villagers?” “Hey!” Crafter said. Comet stretched out his wings, shaking the tips. “There are tons of reasons. Hail, got any examples?” The smaller phantom jumped up excitedly at her name. “Umm…” She squeaked. “What about the Ender dragon?”

  Comet nodded. “Good.” He looked at the villagers. “Ender dragons live in a certain part of the End. In a place so far away, no user or NPC has ever seen it. But monsters have, especially the Enderman. Dragons of all ages and shapes live there. But even though many eggs hatch there, only two out of every ten young dragons are girls. But there is one dragon that is different. They are called the Mother. The Mother lives where users usually spawn. She feeds entirely on the power from the End crystals. Nine out of ten eggs She hatches are girls. This keeps the dragon population in balance. The boys she hatches are called Void Dragons. They go all over the End, collecting and crafting End Crystals. They are also dark blue in color. When the Mothers babies are old enough, they instinctively know how to get to the rest of their kind. But, every once in a while the Mother has another Mother. She knows this because the dragonling refuses the Chorus fruit the Mother tries to feed them. Instead, the baby tries to suck up the End Crystals magic instead. So, when the new Mother is old enough, the old one flys off to live the rest of her life with the rest of her kind. Rare red dragons, called the Alpha males, are the ones who breed with the Mother.”

      Comet looked kind of sad. “But users come and kill the Mothers just for the fun of it.” Hail sniffed. “Right before the Mother’s die, they lay one last egg that always hatches as a Mother. But… users take that too. This stops the balance, and eventually the whole dragon race in that world is wiped out.”

     “That’s so sad,” Wonder said wistfully. “I never thought about there being more dragons.” Comet nodded. “So wait,” he said. “That means Herobrine sent us here?” Gameknight nodded. “Just recently, Herobrine entered the body of his daughter Void. Or, well, Sky.” Comet shook his head real fast. “But how, but how, but what about Soar?” He stammered. 

    “Who’s Soar?” Stitcher asked. “Soar is our queen. Her mate is king Peregrine.” 

   “Peregrine?” Gameknight asked, confused. “You know, the Peregrine falcon?” Wonder asked. Everyone turned to look at her. She threw her arms up in the air. “You know… the fastest flying bird in the physical world?” “Umm,” Monet said. “What are they teaching you at our school, Gameknight?!” Wonder snapped. “You know. The ostrich is the fastest bird on land, the penguin is the fastest in the water, and the Peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the air!” Her voice rose with excitement. “When they dive, they can go up to 240 miles per hour!”

    “That’s us!” Hail crowed happily. “Phantoms are the fastest!” She opened up her wings, but she forgot how small the room was and ended up knocking herself out of her chair. “Anyway,” Comet said, picking his sister up off of the floor. “We didn’t know any of this. Of course, the phantoms knew about Void. How she was going to help and protect the monsters and stuff. But we just knew that she was Herobrine’s daughter and she was nice with glowing eyes. We just assumed they were white, so it wasn’t a surprise. We didn’t much care about her little scrimmage with the villagers, though. Phantoms are already plenty protected, and we don’t really care about villagers.” 

   “Because only users can spawn you guys?” Gameknight asked. Comet looked at him in shock. “Who told you that?” He asked. “That’s a lie!”

    “But if you were so safe, then how did Herobrine get to you?” Hunter asked. “He must have done the same thing to Soar that he did with Void,” Comet said. “You know, control her.” 

    “Here’s what I’m wondering,” Crafter said. “How did Soar get you guys to come with her in the first place?” “Well, some phantoms were already helping Void.” Comet said. “But not that many wanted too. So, Soar tricked us. Phantoms are vegetarians, of course, although we do eat eggs. And fish. Anyway, Soar told us she found this large clearing. She said it was in a beautiful birch and oak forest, and it was totally covered with flowers. And that there was a pond filled with fish, and the trees were filled with apples. There were supposed to be tons of beehives full of honey and there was a whole flock of chickens. Soar even said there were sweet berries from the taiga right next to it.”

      He gazed at his captors. “For the phantoms, this was very, very, very good news. There are so many of us now, and usually we have to go all over the Overworld for that. The only thing besides all that we eat are crops, melons, coaco pods, and leaves. It basically meant we had found a huge farm. She said- she said she needed help getting most of the food. At least a hundred of us went with her. We flew for a long time, but we didn’t see anything. Some of us started getting worried, but Soar urged us on. Finally we did come to a clearing, but it wasn’t like she had said. For one thing, it was kind of… small. And there weren’t any flowers. Or a pond. Or beehives. And none of us smelled any apples or sweet berries. Some of the older phantoms were about to ask Soar, when Void appeared. A bunch of monsters came out of the woods and ambushed us. And Soar just flew up next to Void.” His voice rose shrilly. “That’s all we know! Herobrine didn’t give us any of his plans or things or anything! Just please let us go!”

      Hail whimpered. “I want to go home, Comet.” She whispered. The young phantom glanced around cautiously at the stone walls. “Can we at least go outside?” Comet begged. “I’m not used to being in places that are so… small.” 

   “Yeah!” Hail chirped for support. “I have just one more question,” Gameknight said. “It’s about the Ender Dragon. Why don’t the Mothers just fly away?” Comet looked at him sadly. “Have you ever heard of the Ender Glitch?” He asked. Gameknight shook his head. “I thought so. You see, when Notch first perfected the End and the dragon he had one of his programmers test it out. The man complained that the dragon kept flying away and wouldn’t go after him. So Notch “fixed” the glitch. What he didn’t realize was the dragon was alive and actually trying to get away. So what he did was create a barrier that kept the dragon from going more than five blocks from the island. He also kept it from going too high as well. In the end, the dragons only option is the fight. Either that, or it’s reported as a glitch and that dragon is instantly deleted.”

   “That’s awful,” Gameknight said, horrified. He remembered fighting the dragon with a NPC army and once with just his friends. Both times, he had thought the dragon a horrible bloodthirsty beast. But know he knew it was just a sad creature who was constantly terrified it would be the one to destroy its whole race. 

  Comet nodded grimly. “It’s only allowed to leave once another Mother has been born.” Gameknight took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s go.”

   The two monsters hopped down from there upside down stairs and rushed to the door. Monet opened the door and Hail left out. “Fresh air!” She squeaked. As soon as she said it, she slammed against the other side of the passage. “Oh,” Hail said disappointedly. 

   “Why do you think Herobrine wanted me?” Crafter asked as the squeezed out the doorway. Herder shrugged. “Maybe he wanted something against Gameknight?” He suggested. “Or,” Gameknight said worriedly. “He’s trying to reopen the Source! He might be trying to get into the Physical world again!” Crafter looked confused. “But wouldn’t it be easier for him to just take other villages Crafters?” 

    Wonder laughed. “Yeah, Gameknight,” She joked. “You’re getting to full of yourself. Not every monster you come across is going to hate you.” Hunter snorted and high-fived the other girl. Gameknight felt his face grow hot and quickly turned away.

     The group caught up with the two excited phantoms and walked cautiously back through the crafting chamber. Villagers were whispering and pointing at Comet and Hail. “More monsters?” Gameknight overheard. “Has the User-that-is-not-a-user gone mad?”

      Rakier suddenly ran up to them, looking annoyed. “Where have you been?” He snapped. “And why do you have phantoms with you?” “Where have you been?” Stitcher asked. “I’ve been in the sitting room this WHOLE TIME!” He shouted. “But I obviously missed something!” 

    They passed through the two iron doors and went into the tunnel. Hail smiled and waved at one of the guards. He smiled and waved back, then did a double take. Stitcher and Rakier argued the whole long walk, Rakier doing most of the arguing.

   They finally reached the ladder, and Gameknight broke the cobblestone block. Comet crawled out behind him. The rest of the group followed in suit. It was a nice day, so the watchtower door was wide open. Hail shrunk down into a pouncing position, ready to literally fly out the door. 

     Right then, Gameknight realized something. “WAIT!” He yelled. Hail already had her front legs in the air, and instantly crashed to the ground. “Won’t you burn up?” He asked worriedly. Hail and Comet looked at each other. Then, they burst out laughing. “Oh, man!” Comet choked out. “Users really don’t know anything!” Hail was laughing so hard she couldn’t speak.

     “But you do burn up!” Gameknight said. Hail grinned and then something crazy happened. A set of light blue scales seemed to snap up over her back like armor. The same thing happened to Comet, except his were a different shade. “Sun protecting scales,” He said proudly. Then he bounded out the door. Gameknight winced and closed his eyes. He was sure that Comet was about to burst into flames. But instead, all he heard was laughter. Opening his eyes again, he saw they really did protect them. The phantoms were flying through the air, twisting and diving. Gameknight laughed as he heard Digger shriek when the mobs shot up past him. For a moment as he stepped into the sunlight, it didn’t seem so bad. 

     He was wrong. 

He had barely taken a step when he suddenly fell onto his back. Confused, he sat back up and rubbed his head. “What was that?” Wonder asked, helping him to his feet. “You trying to get onto a YouTube Epic Fails video?” He shrugged. “I- I tripped.”

    “On air?” She asked doubtfully. “I guess,” he mumbled. He had the strange feeling that someone had done it on purpose, but the only one there was Wonder.

   Herobrine was annoyed. “Where are those stupid phantoms? How long does one kidnapping take?” He, of course, meant Comet and Hail. But that wasn’t why he was annoyed. Deep in his mind, he could feel Sky still fighting to push him out of her body. Usually the owner of the body he was in would be long gone by now. He wasn’t sure what was different about this one. It was either the lack of his XP, her magic, or she just had a very strong personality. 

But this wasn’t why he was annoyed either. 

   The little other part of him was back.

When he had been trapped in the Digitizer, he had felt like he had another mind. That part of him hadn’t wanted to go after Gameknight999 again. In fact, that part despised the whole idea. And weird things were happening. For no apparent reason, he would suddenly become uncomfortable and nervous. He would feel like something much more powerful than him was looming above. Then sometimes he was sure someone was watching him. From the forest, he would swear that there was a person standing there. Watching. But there was never anyone there. Then, one night, he opened his eyes and saw a figure right next to him. He screamed and jumped up, but he was completely alone. All he had seen was a silhouette, so he put it off as his imagination. But he still made sure there were extra zombies guarding him at night.

Lastly, small pieces of memories seemed to float through his brain. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to catch them. They were just out of his mental grasp. And, as soon as they appeared, the scared feeling came back and he could feel the eyes swivel back to him. It had already been cramped enough in the mind with Herobrine and Sky. Now the virus felt even more squeezed. 

   The other part of him was growing stronger every day. Soon, the dams between the two sides would burst, and then only fate could decide. 

 

Hey everybody! Just wanted to say I’m sorry this chapter took so long. I’ve been busy and its not easy to write a chapter where they are just talking. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Also happy Kwanzaa and Hanukkah)